A few little girls might grow up to find themselves in a position where prostitution seems like a way to earn a fairly large amount of money in a fairly short time. Coalition of Women in Numbers will try to help Sault Ste. Marie sex trade workers find a way out. And that group of social workers, businesswomen and former sex workers will focus on street-level safety for those involved in a perilous profession.
Streetwalkers are far, far more likely than the general population to be victims of violence, to be beaten or murdered. And in the Sault, prostitutes have had to work those streets largely on their own, unsupported by the sort of social network that most other communities have set up for sex workers, according to Crack.
So if CWIN accomplishes nothing more than improving the safety, health and wellbeing of streetwalkers, that would be an improvement. This emphasis on the prostitute, rather than on her crime, is a refreshing and overdue change of focus in the Sault. Setting aside the percentage of the population, probably a large one, that considers prostitution morally abhorrent, streetwalkers have been viewed with annoyance and prostitution has been seen as something of a neighbourhood improvement issue.
Appeals are pending. Whenever streetwalkers have conducted their business too visibly in the Sault, citizens have complained and police have responded, rousting or arresting the women. But these police strategies have provided no more than temporary relief. The streetwalkers relocate a few blocks away, or return to their old haunts as soon as the heat dies down. A couple of years ago that northern city established a police advisory committee of women with experience in prostitution.
Earlier this month police charged six sex-trade workers and three johns in a two-day sweep in downtown Sudbury. Still, Sudbury police are developing a pamphlet to hand out to sex workers telling them police will not tolerate crimes against them and telling them how to report such crimes.
